We made the cross from Syria to Jordan with out any trouble. It was an interesting experience as all the girls were sent off to the "female inspection house" where an extremly tired looking woman barely glanced at us and then wrote on a little piece of paper. Once back outside we asked or agent what she had written, it said "I've have inspected and searched these 6 western females". Apparently the male gaurds can't touch women so that lady is supposed to check us out. I guess it could have been worse...
Jordan is a pleasant country, people are friendly but they don't go out of their way to help. First day we drove up to Mt. Nebu, which is where Moses was shown the Promisedland before he died. All that's there is a church, but the scenery was lovely. That night we bush camped at a film set that burnt down over looking the Dead Sea, Jerusalem, and Bethleham. It actually wasn't too bad (except for the horrible thistle bushes everyone kept kicking-ouch!)
Next morning we set off for the Dead Sea (after being woken up by a heard of goats passing through our campsite). It was so cool, I can explain but truely you wont get it until you experience it. I walked out in the water until I was waist deep and I could see Dan just floating around but I wasn't sure what to do to make me float. Dan said "Just sit down, you will float" So I did and guess what, I floated. It was so weird, you can't swim even if you want to. We dug up the mud and put on mud masks (careful as to not get the most salt water in your eyes!). It was a great way to spend a morning. We then drove on to Petra.
Petra is a city built in to massive stone cliffs (the treasury is featured in Indian Jones and the Last Cursade) You walk in through a canyon except it's not a canyon because it was cuased by tetonic plates shifting not water. We did the hike up to the Monastary which was hard work but well worth it. We were the only people there!!! - Dan for me Petra is one of the most visually enchanting places I have visited,one American tourist I overheard saying "oh My God it is so suprising everywhere you look there is a suprise" Maybe not the most impressive turn of phrase but certainly true. Especially as you make the lone walk into the main site with sheer rock walls either side of you twisting and turning so you can barly see 20m ahead, on the way you glimps bit of carvings but nothing special, and then all of a sudden you round a corner and you are presented with a patial view of the treasury, it is magnificent, and yes "suprising". My one wish was that there was a stall where i could have rented out a hat and a whip and prentended to be Indy for the day!
We stopped at some mud flats the following day whilst on route to Wadi Rum. Mud flats are basically flats made out of mud!! great place to drive stupidly fast on our big green truck, childish but lots of fun! The surface is as flat and smooth as any road. Stopped there for lunch and had a little kick about, alas my footballing skills have not improved!!
We Toured Wadi Rum National Park in an ancient toyota pick ups which the driver had to hot wire (though I am sure it was his truck). Some great desert scenery and a fantastic place to watch the sun set. Not however before I got to climb lots of bits and bobs of rocks!! Heather even climbed some. I climbed up to see Lawrence of Arabias spring, great climb, but the spring was a little disappointing, green and scummy, what is more scary is that they pipe the water down for people to drink, those people have obviously not climbed to the top to see the source.
Our final day in Jorden was spent waiting for a ferry to Eygpt, we were told that it would depart at some point between 6 and 9 pm, some how it ended up leavingat 4pm??! As it turned out this was most fortunate, customs at the Eygptian end is evil, we ended up sat in a holding area from abot 8.30 to about 12.30am waiting to be cleared, bad news, they didn't like our truck and decided that the Overlandclub may not be the real owners, this wasn't helped by the paperwork of the truck, as it was purchased in a forign country it has a letter of permission to drive rather than the normal ownership documents, after several hours wrangelling, we left the truck impounded in customs. Interesting start to our time in Eygpt, the good news is that customs called the next day to tell us we could have it back. Paul the driver told them that they could look after it for the next 2 weeks as we are on trains and minibuses for that bit anyway, not sure that they were that happy about that so lets hope they give it back to us in two weeks. It is parked right outside their police station so I think they will still want rid of it.
Hope everyone is enjoying the pictures, we try and load as many as we can, but most countries don't have overly fast internet connections. It's been a struggle but we are trying, so keep checking back on old journals or just check out the picture page once and a while!!!
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